COOK, LELAND H. D.

When the City of Okmulgee adopted a new municipal charter of the commission form, the people chose as their first commissioner of finance L. H. D. Cook and during his one term in that office he made a very creditable record and completely reorganized the financial system of the city.

He was able to bring to that office a thorough experience in commercial affairs, acquired largely through the insurance business. Mr. Cook has lived in Okmulgee since 1908, and since then has been in the real estate and insurance business with the exception of the term he served the city government. Among other interests which he represents he is general agent for the United States Fidelity & Guaranty Company of Baltimore. He has also acquired oil interests in the new state and is secretary and treasurer of the John Owen Oil Company of Okmulgee.

L. H. D. Cook was born in Newfield, New York, in Tompkins County, June 27, 1884. His parents, S. Dudley and Anna (MCDANIELS) Cook were also born at Newfield, New York, but for the last three years have made their home at Rochester in that state. The father is a retired merchant. He was one of the organizers of the Tompkins County Co-operative Fire Insurance Company, said to be the most successful company of its kind in the United States. Mr. Cook's grandfather was Dr. C. C. Cook, a. successful physician who was engaged in recruiting and other service during the Civil war. It will be of interest to state that Doctor Cook was a schoolmate and friend of Grover CLEVELAND, and Mr. Cook of Okmulgee has in his possession some letters written by the former president to his grandfather.

The only child of his parents L. H. D. Cook lived at home until he was fifteen, and his early experiences out- side of home were connected with the public schools of Newfield and with his father's store. At the age of fifteen he entered Cornell University, where he became a member of the class of 1904, and remained in college two years. After that for a year he was clerk in a drug store at Coming, New York, and then took up the business which has been his real vocation. He represented the Prudential Life at Corning New York, until 1907, and then went to Syracuse as manager of the Syracuse office for the Security Mutual Life Insurance Company of Binghamton, New York. From there he removed to Okmulgee in 1908.

In politics Mr. Cook is a republican, is a member of the Episcopal Church, and has been especially interested in Masonry. His Blue Lodge affiliations are with King Hiram Lodge No. 784, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at Newfield, New York. His grandfather was a charter member of this lodge, and both his father and uncles were members. Mr. Cook is a member of the Royal Arch Chapter and of Commandery No. 25, Knights Templars, at Okmulgee.

In April, 1909, he married Linnie PARKER, who was born October 13, 1884, at Clarksburg in Carroll County, Tennessee. She came to Muskogee, Oklahoma, in 1907. They are the parents of two children: Anna Lynn and Dudley Parker.

Transcribed by Jeanne M. Misleh, 23 July 1999.

SOURCE: Thoburn, Joseph B., A Standard History of Oklahoma, An Authentic Narrative of its Development, 5 v. (Chicago, New York: The American Historical Society, 1916)